WATN: Jim Weber enjoying life after the headlines

Jim Weber, a former reporter, copy editor and editor at large at The Repository, retired for a second time last month as a delivery driver for Davies Drugs.

Matthew Rink CantonRep.com staff writer @mrinkREP

Editor's note: This is the latest in our "Where Are They Now" series that catches up on people who at one time were featured in the pages of The Repository. Have an idea for us to pursue? Email newsroom@cantonrep.com.

What's a newspaperman do after he's stepped away from the headlines and deadlines? How does a reporter fill his time when he's done chasing leads?

"I became a drug dealer," a grinning 79-year-old Jim Weber said.

A few years after leaving The Repository in 2000 as its editor at-large, Weber tried to find something to keep him busy and, as he puts it, spare his "wife's sanity." He got a job delivering prescription medications to shut-ins for Davies Drugs in Canton.

It was a fitting way for the rambunctious Massillon resident to spend his retirement. It kept him connected to the community he wrote for and about for most of his career.

Weber worked as a news and sports reporter, copy editor, city editor and an editor at-large for the paper between 1957 and 1965 and from 1969 to 2000.

After graduating from Notre Dame, Weber tried landing a job in radio or television. WHBC and The Repository were owned by the same company, Brush-Moore, back then. Radio station managers didn't have an opening, but recommended him for a job at the newspaper.

He started as a beat reporter in Massillon, before moving on to cover crime. His contributions as a reporter included stories about the founding of Walsh College and the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class of enshrinees in 1963.

MAKING A NAME FOR HIMSELF

Weber spent four years at the Akron Beacon Journal, where he covered the United Rubber Workers' election of a new president in 1966 and the union's three-month strike against the five major tire makers that followed. His reporting of the Rubber Workers' strike earned him side jobs writing for Business Week and the Wall Street Journal.

"I got to be a pretty well-known guy in the field of labor union coverage," he recalled.

He returned to the Canton paper in 1969 at the urging of Publisher Clayton Horn. In 1979, Weber directed the newspaper's coverage of Thurman Munson's death in a plane crash at the Akron-Canton Airport.

He was part of a team of reporters who pitched the idea for a local entertainment section, and he gave it its original name, REPertoire. The section, published on Thursdays, is now known as Ticket. Weber also played a role in the newspaper's decision to remove "Canton" from its name in an effort to reach a larger audience in Stark County. In turn, he directed reporters to start covering the county's growing "satellite communities."

Weber says that his greatest achievement was writing about people, whether it was for one of the columns he wrote in his final five years at the paper or as a reporter covering the tragic death of a child. He's still brought to tears by the stories of the boy struck and killed by a driver while trying to beat traffic on his way to school, the Boy Scout strangled by wire in a dog run or two children killed by a sun-blinded driver as they ran home from the store.

"I'd much rather write funny stories about people," he said, "but every once and awhile you get into something like that and it really gives you a sense that you're connected with people."

UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE

Weber decided to retire a second time in November as forecasters called for a bitter-cold winter. Delivering medications in the ice and snow would be too rough on him. It was a big letdown for the family-owned pharmacy, which has delivered prescriptions ever since it was opened by Dave Fettman 50 years ago.

Second-generation owner Steve Fettman praised Weber for being a great ambassador for one of the few remaining independent pharmacies. Fettman discovered a soft side of Weber behind his vast knowledge of local history and occasional wisecracks.

"He just cared so much about the people he delivered to," Fettman said. "One of the things he would tell me is that when he would deliver to these people, you know a lot of them would never go out of their house and they were lonely and Jim was one of their only friends. It just spoke volumes for me when he would say it."

Fettman has all sorts of stories about his delivery drivers. One drove off with a prescription box still on top of the car. Another driver mistook the gas pedal for reverse and drove onto the front steps of a house. Fettman tried to come up with a similar gaffe for Weber, but he kept coming back to how much Weber cared for the customers.

Fettman said that if one of the pharmacy's Massillon-area customers didn't answer the door during Weber's rounds, he would take the prescription home at the end of the day and try to reach the customer throughout the evening.

"Jim would go till the deliveries were done," Fettman said. "If I could have 10 Jim Webers I would."

Weber will spend his second retirement studying mathematics, reading books about psychology, health and management and following his favorite sports columnists. He'll start going to the gym again to stave off "old timer's" disease. And he and his wife will have a little more time for the grandkids' sporting events.

Asked what other plans he had for his retirement, Weber responded, "Breathing. That's one I'm going to try to keep up with."

Reach Matthew at 330-580-8527 or on Twitter: @mrinkREP

mrink 12/19/13 box

Jim Weber, a retired reporter, copyeditor, columnist and editor at-large at The Repository, lives in Massillon with his wife Nancy. They have three children, Julie McEwan of Kettering, Tim of Chagrin Falls, Amy Dice of Portland, Oregon and Kurt of North Royalton; and seven grandchildren.

mrink 12/19/13

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Jim Weber of Massillon retired from The Repository in 2000.

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Jim Weber of Massillon looks at family photos and items that commemorate his journalism career. Jim retired from The Repository in 2000.

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Jim and Nancy Weber of Massillon. Jim retired from The Repository in 2000.